Pages

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Yummy Blueberry Muffins

***Brad and I had a craving for something yummy last Sunday morning. I had some fresh blueberries hanging out in the fridge, so these blueberry muffins sounded perfect. If you don't have any fresh blueberries on-hand, frozen blueberries work just fine. The lemon zest in these muffins were the secret ingredient...they add the perfect little zing to each bite. And just look at that blueberry goodness! ;)

I used a trick that I learned from Giada De Laurentiis when making these muffins:

- Place blueberries in a fine mesh strainer over your mixer bowl. Add flour to blueberries and shake until all flour makes it into the mixer bowl below. A thin layer of flour should remain on all blueberries (see photo below). This will prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins during the baking process! This will also result in nice, sifted flour in the mixing bowl...you can then proceed with the recipe, adding the sugar, baking powder and salt to the flour.

One more thing...I sprinkled a little sugar over each muffin before baking. This just makes them extra yummy.

Enjoy!***

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour (180 g)

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg beaten

3/4 cup milk (180 ml)

1/4 cup cooking oil

3/4 cup blueberries (120 g)

1 tsp lemon peel (5 ml) (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center. (See note above regarding the flour trick!)

In a separate bowl, combine the egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture, all at once, to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Yes, the batter should be lumpy. (If you try to stir all the lumps out, your muffins will be very tough.)

Carefully fold in blueberries and optional lemon peel.

Grease muffin cups, or line with paper bake cups; fill each 2/3 full. Bake at 400°F for 19 - 21 minutes, or until golden brown.